Drive
by jeangenie24
Summary: Michelle's thoughts as she drives to the hospital to see Tony (based on 7-8pm, Season 3)


Title: Drive  
  
Author: Jean G  
  
Email: jeangenie2424yahoo.co.uk - Feedback welcome and a huge thank you to everyone who's commented on my first pieces of fic. You guys rule.  
  
Spoilers up to Season 3, 7-8pm.  
  
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It isn't always easy to tell someone you love them.  
  
For some people it's harder to show someone you love them but for people like Tony Almeida sometimes that's the only way to communicate.  
  
Sometimes Tony looks at his wife and feels nauseous with how much he loves her, with how much he would sacrifice for her and with how tempted he sometimes is to grab her wrist and take her into the sunlight. To take a simple job, to live a simple life and to meet her at home at 6pm on the dot every night and not worry that you could be interrupted at any minute by some new protocol setting or bio-threat. To be blissfully ignorant.  
  
He remembers how that feels. Two weeks in the Bahamas came four months after their actual wedding – it was the earliest they could both be covered. Two incredible weeks where it really was only them. He remembers waking up, catching her staring at him, asking her what she was doing and being told that the most beautiful, strong, and sexy woman he'd ever met was marvelling at how lucky she was. How lucky she was? It was a legacy of Nina Myers that he was still waiting for the other shoe to drop, unable to completely believe her.  
  
Now its two years later and Tony believes every word that comes out of her mouth. He knows that there isn't anything she won't tell him and that she would do anything to protect him. He believes what they have is the best thing in his life and when he is lying on the floor of a mall with blood streaming down his side she's all he can see. He's not thinking about virus plots, his co-workers or even the people of Los Angeles.  
  
She's all he can see.  
  
After three years and playing a major role in the restructuring of CTU Michelle knows every single room, corridor and exit available to her at any given time. The problem is that on a day like today no matter which way she goes she risks being pulled aside again by her needy charges.  
  
Head down. Head down. Don't make eye contact and they won't stop you. Avoid Chloe. Just keep moving.  
  
"Michelle!" Damn. Chloe. Keep moving, let Chappelle explain. After that 'dispensable' crap he owes you that much.  
  
Tony. She just needs to see him, to touch him and watch him breathe. She wants to take him home, lock the door and not leave for a year.  
  
"Michelle!" More insistent now but still she keeps moving until she's out the front door and blindly sprinting towards the car with her set of keys already in her hand.  
  
She swings open the car door and steals a quick glance back at CTU silently willing no-one to be following her with another crisis. Michelle is only too aware of the massive task that weighs on them all today and feels no small measure of guilt that she is running but she knows that the adrenaline buzz she's been riding so far is now being totally overwhelmed by the sharp pain that echoes through her every time she thinks of what she came close to losing today. What she could still lose. Tony.  
  
When she tugs the keys round in the ignition she jumps out her skin when the radio comes blasting on at her. Quickly reaching to turn the volume down she gets another one of those twangs: this morning on the way to work he'd been trying to distract her from worrying over the position at Langley by goofing along to the radio. She loves that she sees that side of him. She loves that her reward for laughing at his bad jokes is a kiss at the traffic lights. She just loves him so much.  
  
This is how it's been all afternoon. Trying to concentrate while the last three years flash through her mind and wondering how she could possibly live without him.  
  
She's driving now and, thank god, traffic is about as quiet as it ever gets in LA. Tony's beloved GPS system predicts about 10 minutes to the hospital. She guiltily hopes he doesn't open his eyes until she's there. She knows that he'll understand if she isn't there but she won't forgive herself.  
  
10 minutes and you'll see him. 10 minutes. Such a small span of time in the scope of a day but it feels like forever. Funny when the last three years have gone so quickly. Michelle never expected to be this happy. When you were the frizzy haired president of the science club in high school you don't expect to end up with Mr Most Popular. When you've had your heart broken so badly that you spent years spitting out cynical advice to wide eyed girlfriends, you don't expect to one day fall into love so hard that you'll spend the better part of a year unable to draw breath.  
  
She told Kim earlier that working together is not a problem. What she didn't tell Kim is that it's actually a joy. Even their superiors have noted that they work together, most of the time, seamlessly and, on a more personal level, she never minds working late anymore because as long as she's with him she feels at home. And he feels the same way - even if he didn't tell her frequently she'd know from those shared stolen glances which still make her blush.  
  
She's spent the last three years feeling so lucky. She shocks herself by barking out a laugh. Lucky. What was that old saying about pride coming before a fall?  
  
The GPS directs her off the freeway and straight into a red light. She twists her wedding ring around her finger and thinks about Tony laughing admiringly when she insisted that she wanted a practical ring, "That's my girl". She gets a pang when she thinks about how serious he was when he slipped it on to her finger. How they promised each other forever and how, really, this wasn't fair.  
  
She tries to control her breathing when she sees the hospital in the distance. So close now. She briefly considers checking in with CTU to find out if Gael has said anything of importance yet she doesn't reach for her cell. The only thing that concerns her is her husband.  
  
He's all she can see.


End file.
